The Weekly Digest (August 4, 2024)
Happy Sunday, Brionies! We are so proud of our Olympic athletes – GO USA!!!
Here’s what you need to know about San Francisco politics this week and beyond:
City Hall
City Hall is on August break. We hope our fellow San Franciscans can cope without the visionary leadership of our supervisors.
Recent Briones Endorsements
With City Hall on break, we thought it would be a good time to look ahead to the November election. This week, we announced joint endorsements in two races where multiple candidates are embracing a Briones-style politics of #Opportunity4Everyone.
Remember: San Francisco municipal elections are conducted under a ranked choice voting system, permitting you to vote for more than one candidate in your preferred order, so make sure that you list ALL of the following names on your ballot.
For District 7 Supervisor, we are endorsing Stephen Martin-Pinto and Matt Boschetto.
For District 11 Supervisor, we are endorsing Jose Morales and Oscar Flores.
These candidates join Min Chang (running for Board of Education Commissioner) as Briones endorsees. Look for more endorsements (across multiple races) from the Briones Society in the next several weeks.
Happenings around town
Thursday, August 8, 5:30-7:30pm. Location upon RSVP.
Taraval District National Night Out, Tuesday, August 6, 5-7pm, Minnie & Lovie Ward Recreational Center
Wednesday, August 14, 6pm at the Commonwealth Club and online
Free the Market: How to Build Four Walls and a Roof Without Spending $48 Billion
Tuesday, August 20, 6-7:30pm. Location upon RSVP.
“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” California legislators have taken this famous quote by Republican Senator Everett Dirksen to heart, increasing our state budget by more than $120 billion in just the last five years — all of which comes out of your pocket. Now, an obscure regional agency, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA), has put a $20 billion bond measure (that will ultimately cost you $48 billion to pay back) on the ballot this November to fund and maintain subsidized housing. We here at the Briones Society agree that the Bay Area needs more housing that is accessible to low- and moderate-income residents. But is this the best way to get it? Spoiler alert: probably not! Join us on August 20 for a special event with Cato Institute Analyst Marc Joffe and Independent Institute Scholar Christopher Calton to discuss the problems with this bond (it’s a piggy bank for special interests) and explore better ways to increase the supply of housing for residents of all incomes in the Bay Area.
What we’re reading
Big WHOAH: The Examiner profiled Briones-endorsed Republican candidate Min Chang, who is running for school board on a platform of educational excellence, fiscal responsibility, and business-informed competence. “Asked if Chang’s partisan status would affect her vote, one woman out on the Embarcadero who had just wrapped up a friendly chat with the candidate said, ‘Oh, she is a Republican? We have to fix our schools, so I guess I’d be open to what ideas are being proposed,’ said the woman, who declined to give her name but described herself as a lifelong Democrat.” Ideas > special interests. We’re here for it!
Speaking of the upcoming election, Mayor London Breed has ordered city employees to offer homeless people a bus ticket out of town before presenting shelter or housing as an option. Following the recent Supreme Court ruling that gave city officials more power to enforce anti-camping laws, officials are ramping up citations and arrests against homeless people who refuse to move indoors. The New York Times reports that when cleaning up downtown encampments, city workers have found “guns, knives, machetes and axes in the tents, as well as giant containers of urine and feces, rats, mold and drugs.” One lieutenant said that upon searching the criminal records of people who became aggressive during cleanups, one in four have come back with outstanding warrants for crimes ranging from car break-ins to sexual assault.
Golden State property owners are under siege, according to City Journal in California v. Landlords. See also: SF landlords getting fined millions for dividing apartments into almost bite size pieces and SF businesses desperate for city help against “criminally insane.”
Quick Hits
S.F. Nonprofit ‘Neglected’ Red Flags Years Before Executive’s Arrest, Investigators Say
When is Homelessness Funding Enough? (Hint: never, according to the nonprofit industrial complex.)
Breed Signs $15.9 Billion SF Budget That Boosts Police Funding, Cuts From Public Health
San Ramon Wonders What Will Happen After Chevron Relocates to Houston
Yes, Kamala Harris Is Responsible For California’s 31% More Violent Crime And 3x More Homeless